Weeks 4 and 5

Hi all! So Annie and I are in the last few days of our time at Bugando hospital. There are so many unforgettable parts of the experience, both inside the hospital and out. We had one such interesting experience this past Friday night. After morning report on Friday, one of the awesome Tanzanian residents, Matungmbwate, came up to Annie and said, simply, “Disco?” We correctly took this to mean “Let’s all go out tonight!” So we all gathered at one of Mwanza’s new nightclubs, Club Lips. There are many notable aspects of this experience:

1. When we arrived, there was no one else there. Creepy, but allowed us to sit at a table in the back like we were VIPs or something.
   
2. At midnight, when it turned April 2nd, my oldest sister’s birthday, 2 consecutive songs that I a) know she loves and b) don’t expect to hear in a club came on: ‘Big in Japan’ by Alphaville, and ‘La Isla Bonita’ by Madonna.
   
3. The club basically played 2 types of music. For most of the night, there was African music, which is kind of a chill beat to which you sway back and forth (Nate, one of the Tanzanian Pediatrics resident, exemplifies this version of dancing. He throws in rubbing his belly as he does it, which Raja refers to as “the Teletubby dance”). Then, as we were getting ready to leave, the DJ inexplicably switched to a string of mid-90s techno music (aka “Tonight is the Night,” “Be my Lover,” and the one that made EVERYONE go crazy, “Barbie Girl.”)

Needless to say, it was a pretty unforgettable night.

As far as the hospital is concerned, we’ve obviously still had our ups and downs, but I think we experienced one of our first unequivocal successes this Monday, when we saw a patient with severe tetanus whom we had met in the ICU on our first day walking around on the main floors. Even better, he recognized us and gave us a big wave. I was so excited I wanted to bear hug him; unfortunately this probably would have knocked him over.

Oh, one whomp; the soccer match we were going to go to was pre-empted by a 2-day gospel concert. Even worse, Young Africans FC are playing Toto Africans FC this Sunday, when we'll be in Zanzibar! OK, Zanzibar is cool too, but still. Boo.

Till next time, quaheri!